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Then, out of nowhere, a thought smacked me in the head. There was a middle ground. Natalie's
words reminded me of it. It's worth it, worth giving up the sun and the magic.
The magic.
Ms. Karp hadn't become Strigoi simply because she'd gone crazy. She'd become Strigoi to stay
sane. Becoming Strigoi cut a person completely off from magic. In doing that, she couldn't use
it. She couldn't feel it. She wouldn't want it anymore. Staring at Lissa, I felt a knot of worry coil
within me.
What if she figured that out? Would she want to do it too? No, I quickly decided. Lissa would
never do that. She was too strong a person, too moral. And so long as she stayed on the pills,
her higher reasoning would keep her from doing something so drastic.
Still, the whole concept prodded me to find out one last thing. The following morning, I went to
the chapel and waited in one of the pews until the priest showed up.
"Hello, Rosemarie," he said, clearly surprised. "Can I help you with something?”
I stood up. "I need to know more about St. Vladimir. I read that book you gave me and a couple
others." Best not to tell him about stealing the ones in the attic. "But nobody told how he died.
What happened? How did his life end? Was he, like, martyred?”
The priest's bushy eyebrows rose. "No. He died of old age. Peacefully.”
"You're sure? He didn't become Strigoi or kill himself?”
"No, of course not. Why would you think that?”
"Well…he was holy and everything, but he was also kind of crazy, right? I read about it. I
thought he might have, I don't know, given into that.”
His face was serious. "It's true he fought demons—insanity—his whole life. It was a struggle,
and he did want to die sometimes. But he overcame it. He didn't let it defeat him.”
I stared in wonder. Vladimir wouldn't have had pills, and he'd clearly continued to use magic.
"How? How did he do that?”